Difficulty predicting which late-talking toddlers will continue to have long-term language difficulties, and uncertainty about whether procedural memory weaknesses underlie late talking

What was found

• Motor planning was not associated with a history of late talking or school-age language abilities
• Children with typical early development did not show stronger procedural learning compared with peers with a history of late talking
• Weaker school-age language abilities were associated with weak procedural learning in the typically-developing group only
• No evidence found for poor procedural learning in children with a history of late talking

Who it was tested with: 79 children aged 7;5-10;5 years, 43 with a history of late talking and 36 with typical early language development.